Report: Flame Virus Foreshadows Future Cyber Warfare
Iran turned to a Hungarian cyber lab and a Russian security firm for answers after the country discovered the Flame virus, the Washington Post reports.
Kapersky Lab experts concluded that Flame was created by the same group or groups that developed the Stuxnet worm, which targeted industrial systems and equipment.
A former U.S. intelligence official told the Post that Flame’s purpose was to map and monitor Iranian computer networks, paving the way for a different type of covert warfare.
Intelligence gathering against Iran’s nuclear weapons program started in President George W. Bush’s second term and a program to disrupt Iran’s efforts went live in 2008, moving from military control to CIA control.
According to the report, the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel’s military all had a hand in creating and utilizing Flame.
The Flame virus is believed to be the first continuous campaign of cyber sabotage against a U.S. adversary, the Post reported.